‘The Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) is an opportunity for people of all interests to learn about the many activities within the metaverse. The SLCC is a volunteer ran and managed convention, headed by the members of The Future United, Inc, a volunteer, non-profit 501.c.3 organization aimed at presenting avenues for people to discuss, explore, and learn about the technologies of virtual worlds.’
SLCC08 is theannual conference, taking place in Tampa. The Reuters Second Life blog reports that attendance is down 50% from last year in Chicago (a drop of 400 to 400). An extract from the Reuters story….
‘Notably absent from the conference were any real-world businesses from outside the virtual worlds industry, or the consulting firms that only last year built Second Life presences for real-world brands. We invited the Electric Sheep Company and Rivers Run Red, but both apparently decided they didnt want to attend, said SLCC organizer Peter Lokke (Second Life: Crucial Armitrage).
In terms of external business use of Second Life, what we see now isnt marketing but businesses using Second Life for things like training and meetings, said Linden Labs Glenn Fisher at a panel on SLCCs sparsely-attended business track. Unlike last years conference in Chicago, most of the discussions revolved around issues of relevance only to in-world L$-based enterprises.’
So, why is this?
1. SL hype is down, meaning less RL businesses are interested in deploying marketing programmes.
2. Simply, there’s a much wider range of alternative VW platforms available, offering better targeted and more appropriate audiences and environments.
3. The vast majority of marketing initiatives deployed into SL were unsuccessful.
4. (As referenced above) there’s fewer larger MDC’s promoting SL.
5. The weather ain’t good.
Is this a bad thing for the virtual worlds sector?
Not really.
1. Enterprise usage continues to take place in SL.
2. Using alternative, more appropriate VW platforms will generally be more effective for brands.
3. The industry has sufficient momentum in other areas.
4. SL is still a suitable platform for some brands.
5. There’s a fantastic range of new worlds coming down the pipe and some pretty interesting ones recently launched.